THE JAMAICAN government has reacted with predictable and perhaps justifiable outrage to the U.S. State Department's low rating of Jamaica in its annual Human Trafficking Report released last Friday.
Other persons and civic action groups, while expressing disappointment at the ranking and its implication for Jamaica's economy and image, have opted to await a more full disclosure from the U.S. authorities of the reports' contents.
At the root of all the reactions is the fear that harsh sanctions in the form of a withholding of non-humanitarian aid will be imposed on the island.
In its initial response the Ministry of National Security referred to the report as "highly prejudicial" taking particular umbrage at the report's searing analysis that the Jamaican Government "lacked the political will to address the problem of trafficking in Jamaica".
Subsequently, Minister of Information, Burchell Whiteman, said he had no knowledge of incidents of human trafficking in Jamaica. He has also dismissed as 'highly anecdotal," the cases that the United States have put forward as proof of the underground activity taking place in Jamaica.
It does not seem to us that the report is sufficiently authoritative in its findings to warrant the sweeping charges. According to the report, Jamaica is a source country for children trafficked internally for the purpose of sexual exploitation. It referred to a 2001 ILO report that more than 100 minors, both boys and girls, were involved in Jamaica's sex trade. But then it added, "precise numbers of trafficking victims are difficult to establish due to the underground and under-acknowledged nature of trafficking in the country". Do we have facts or allegations and rumours?
The State Department's report added: "Jamaica is a transit country for illegal migrants moving to the U.S. and Canada; some may be trafficking victims. Jamaicans are also trafficked into forced labour in the United States."
That, presumably is something they can be tracked at their end. Regrettably reports of arrests in the United States in relation to this problem have been rather scanty.
In fact it would appear that the State Department is primarily concerned that strong enough legislation is not in place and that where laws have been drafted they are not being enforced.
But the moral authority of the U.S. to point fingers has also been raised by some persons arguing that the incidence of human trafficking in the United States far exceeds anything in Jamaica.
The conviction of two American citizens in 2004 for trafficking four Jamaican men for labour exploitation and the discovery of a labour camp in Florida by Federal Agents last Friday have been cited to strengthen this perspective.
However, if the State Department can substantiate the claims in its report, then every effort must be made by the Jamaican authorities to ensure that loopholes in our current immigration system are not being exploited either by foreign nationals, Jamaicans exclusively or groups comprising both.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
